What Pride Had Wrought
by uber-tastic
Summary: Dragon Age: Inquisition!AU. All Anna wants to do is find Elsa, cuddle up to her, and forget Adamant ever happened. Getting that is a little harder than she hoped. Inquisitor!Anna and Companion!Elsa.


It's honestly surprising how much worse than expected Adamant goes, given that Anna wasn't expecting much from an ancient Grey Warden fortress filled to the brim with demons to start with. It also marks the first time Anna's ever felt that she'd take the halls of Halamshiral and the Orlesians' blighted "Game" over a battlefield. Especially if that battlefield is the Maker-damned _Fade_ with its giant spiders and giant fear demons.

(Maker, does Anna hate demons.)

The icing on the already pathetic cake is the look Stroud gives her once they're both out, the one of regret and maybe, just maybe, a hint of disdain, but right now, she can hardly pay him any mind with the exhaustion in her bones seeping into her brain. It's a wonder she's even still on her feet.

The walk from the wrecked courtyard to the carriage Cullen has prepared for her is a blur, and she's pretty sure she's going to get an earful from at least four different people when she gets back to Skyhold. And frankly, she wouldn't blame any of them for it; after everything the Wardens did, she had every reason to disband the lot of them on the spot.

But she also just stepped out of the blighted Fade, for the _second_ time in her life (as though once wasn't bad enough), and the last thing she wants to do is vilify the people that make up every child's favorite stories. The Wardens are heroes at heart, even if their recent actions fail to reflect that.

Not that that makes the ride back to Skyhold any more comforting. Solas gives her the stink eye nearly the whole way back, and all Anna can think about is how much she wants to find Elsa and curl up in her arms, hoping that people will let her do that first and wait to give her a hard time about Adamant after.

And - Maker - _Varric_. Anna doesn't know how to face him after this. How can she tell him his best friend, the person he spent years protecting from the Chantry, sacrificed herself so that she could escape the Fade?

Anna sinks further into the plush seat of the carriage, far too soft and cushy for a soldier, even a noble-born one, to find comfortable. Solas frowns at her in disappointment from the seat on the other side. Iron Bull and Sera are still too worked up about their own experiences in the fade to pay much mind to her, and she wishes even harder that she can find Elsa before getting pulled into another war council meeting.

As luck would have it, she doesn't even need to look for Elsa when the carriage finally arrives at Skyhold. Elsa's already in the courtyard when Anna steps out of the blighted thing, the first genuine smile she's had since leaving Adamant growing on her face and subsequently dying upon seeing how irate Elsa is.

"Hi, El-" Anna starts, before being roughly yanked away from the cheering crowd gathered in the courtyard. She lets the mage pull her up the stairs leading to the main hall, arm outstretched as Elsa holds her wrist and walks her through various halls to the small corner of the hold she usually retreats to after missions.

"What were you thinking?!" Elsa demands as soon as they're away from the prying ears of the Ferelden refugees and Orlesian nobility. "Going into the Fade? Physically? You're lucky you got out of there at all, let alone alive!"

Anna holds her hands up defensively, resigning herself to not getting the cuddles she was hoping for. "I wasn't trying to end up in the Fade," she protests, tiredness plain in her voice. "Besides, I walked out of there once, without getting too scuffed up, didn't I?"

"Yes, and that's exactly why you shouldn't try your luck!" Elsa says, a hand running through her hair and mussing her usually immaculate bangs. "It's a wonder you survived the Fade the _first_ time, and I don't think I need to remind you that you spent the next few days after that 'excursion' unconscious!"

"That was because of the Anchor," Anna argues, weakly. "The thing in my hand that glows green?"

Elsa huffs, and Anna writes off any remaining chance of even getting a hug from the irate woman in front of her. "And how do we know that the Anchor doesn't react poorly to the Fade? How do we know that you didn't almost _die_ from getting it because a normal human can't handle possessing an ancient, magical artifact in the realm of ancient magic? You could have died!"

And then, without warning, Elsa pulls Anna into her arms, crushing the Inquisitor to her body.

"The Inquisition couldn't function without you, Anna, and not just because you're the Inquisitor," Elsa mutters, voice muted from being spoken into the crook of Anna's neck. "All these people here? _You_ brought them together; _you_ gave them a reason to be here, to fight. Maker knows _I_ wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you. I'm just a rebel mage, but _you_ gave me a purpose beyond survival."

Anna hears a sniff, and her arms instinctively come up to return the bone-crushing hug. "And you're just so quick to throw your life away," Elsa continues, and Anna can definitely feel her shoulder grow damp. "You don't think twice about jumping into danger, and it's equal parts inspiring and stupid. You keeping saying the men need you, but you forget that we - all of your friends and companions - we need you, too. Alive and in one piece."

"So you're not mad at me?" Anna chances, hands lightly rubbing soothing circles along Elsa's back. This might not be the cuddle she was hoping for, but she certainly can't complain about getting hugged and worried over.

"No, I'm not mad," Elsa says from her place nuzzled under Anna's chin, voice laced with _just_ a hint of humor. "Just worried, scared, and overwhelmingly relieved that you're still with us."

"Good, good," Anna replies, "because I'm surprised that I'm still upright, and I would really like to go lay down in my quarters before Cullen or Josephine finds me."

As though burned, Elsa releases Anna, hands raised apologetically. "Oh, I'm sorry for keeping you then," she says, her eyes red-rimmed and her cheeks wet from earlier.

"Actually," Anna starts, hand reaching out for one of Elsa's and intertwining their fingers when she get ahold of it, "I was hoping that you would come with."

Elsa's eyes go wide for a split second before she ducks her head, blushing, and Anna grins despite her exhaustion. This might be her favorite part of flirting with Elsa, the coy looks and the way Elsa always seems so surprised that Anna is interested in her, as though she's not the most breathtaking woman Anna's had the good fortune of meeting.

"I'd like that," Elsa mumbles, just loud enough for Anna to hear, and Anna's grin grows.

She makes quick work of leading them to her quarters, excitement muting the tiredness in her limbs.

* * *

When Anna wakes up, the sky is dark and Elsa is curled into her side, sleeping peacefully. The scene is almost enough to convince her to go back to sleep, but she spots Baron Plucky, Leliana's favorite raven, perched on her sofa and knows that she's ignored her duties for too long.

Extracting herself from Elsa's arms as delicately as possible, Anna makes sure the covers are properly tucked around the other woman and silently makes her way down to the war room.

Her advisors are shocked to see her enter.

"Inquisitor!" Cullen says, eyebrows jumping halfway up his forehead when he sees her. "Forgive me, we were expecting you to take more time to recuperate after the events at Adamant." Is he… blushing?

"Yes," Josephine cuts in, a nervous titter that Anna's only heard in her voice when she's talking about Blackwall's newest hint of affection towards her, "you must be so tired after everything that happened. No one would blame you for wanting to take a night off."

Anna looks between her commander and ambassador in confusion, trying to wrap her head around the Inquisitions' two biggest workaholics' insistence that she not get her work done. "Wait, what?" she asks. "You two are always on my case to get my reports done, and now you're telling me to put it off? Am I dreaming? Did I get trapped in the Fade after all?"

Josephine and Cullen look between each other before turning to Leliana, the only of the three left to speak.

"I think what they're trying to say is," Leliana starts, mouth wrapping around the words with extra care, as though she's trying to phrase herself as delicately as she can, "we caught you and Elsa looking quite comfortable cuddling up to each other in your quarters," Anna turns bright red, though the blush on her face has nothing on the shade of pink on Cullen's cheeks, "and we've been waiting for such a development between you two since you found Elsa in the Hinterlands. We don't want to spoil the moment."

Anna buries her face in her hands, certain that she's never been so mortified as right now. She didn't think it possible, but she would most definitely take Halamshiral, the Fade, or even some Maker-forsaken mix of the two (on second thought, maybe not; Halamshiral _in_ the Fade would be a nightmare worse than anything Nightmare could come up with) to the realization that her war advisors, some of the most serious, committed people in the Inquisition, have been rooting for Elsa and her to get together from the moment Elsa joined their cause.

Don't they have better things to do, like managing the organization trying to put the world back together?

"Elsa's still asleep if you want to go back upstairs," Leliana tells her after a few moments of strained silence. "I told Baron Plucky to report to me if she woke up."

So _that's_ why Baron Plucky was in her room. Maybe Leliana should have tied a note to his leg, one that said "Go back to bed, only embarrassment and terrible relationship advice awaits downstairs".

"Can we pretend this conversation never happened?" Anna asks, hands still covering every bit of face they can. "Tomorrow I'll come back down here, and we'll pretend none of this happened tonight?"

"Please," Cullen mutters, sounding about as flustered as Anna feels, right as Josephine breathes a relieved. "Agreed."

"Right. Goodnight, everyone," Anna says, spinning on her heel and marching off before she can look any of her advisors in the eye.

"Goodnight, Inquisitor. Sleep well," Leliana calls after her, voice saturated with barely contained laughter.

Luckily, Elsa's still sound asleep when she gets back to her room, and instead of letting her spymaster's words get to her, Anna crawls back into bed without a second thought. Elsa instantly reaches out for her once she's settled in, wrapping an arm around her waist and nuzzling into the crook of her neck.

"You're back," Elsa mumbles sleepily, the words ghosting over Anna's collarbone and almost tickling her skin.

"Sorry for waking you," Anna whispers back. She reciprocates the cuddle, though she moves with more lucidity. "Had to go be the Inquisitor for a while."

"Didn't wake me," Elsa protests softly, and Anna can hardly keep from smiling at how cute it is. "Just glad you came back."

"Of course I came back," Anna jokes, "it's my room."

"No," Elsa says, surprisingly forcefully, given that she's still half-asleep, "from the Fade, from Adamant, from every battle you get into." She pushes herself up, eyes open, and Anna can see the intensity swimming around in their blue depths. "I want you to keep coming back. To Skyhold, to _me_."

"Always," Anna breathes out before she can think about what she's saying. "And I promise, I will do everything in my power to keep coming back, no matter what happens."

"That's all I ask," Elsa says, and then she leans down and gives Anna the softest, sweetest kiss Anna's ever experienced. They break apart too soon for Anna's liking, but for all that her mind might be ready to go further, her body is in no shape to do anything but cuddle and kiss chastely until it recovers from today.

"You, too," Anna mutters once she's found her voice again. "You need to do everything you can to come back, too, because I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."

"That's a fair deal," Elsa agrees, pressing another kiss to Anna's lips. "And I promise I will be as careful as I can, but for now we should get back to sleep and continue this tomorrow. It's been a long day."

"You can say that again," Anna says, the idea of sleep unbelievably alluring even if tomorrow means she has to go back to work. Leaning up, she gives Elsa one final peck before dropping back to the pillow, fully prepared to snuggle until sleep takes her.

And tomorrow? She can deal with tomorrow when it gets here.

* * *

 **A/N:** Hey it didn't take me over a year to publish something this time!

I have about 1348572634 Elsanna Dragon Age!AU ideas (including but not limited to: Templar!Anna and Apostate!Elsa, Grey Warden!Elsa and Anna, Elsa Theirin and loyal servant!Anna, bard!Anna and Orlesian noble!Elsa... the list goes on), so if you want to talk Dragon Age Elsanna, please hit me up, because I will talk your ear off about it.


End file.
